atw: Re: New Software for Documentation Department

John:

Why do you need one application to do everything?  I would be looking at
AuthorIT for all your structured docs -- user guide, installation guide,
operations guide, maintenance guide and plain vanilla data sheets (which
can be pulled into any brochures as an appendix, since these docs typically
concentrate on the sizzle and not the steak).  Then get some app like
InDesign or whatever for brochures and other layout-intensive or highly
pictorial content.

AuthorIT has excellent version and release management, and can
single-source to various kinds of help, Word and PDF.  It also supports
re-use by allowing multiple manifest files (books, TOCs, whatever), to
include different combinations of topics.  You can also assemble topics at
different nesting levels and the typography of headings, etc. changes
depending on deep the nesting is.  If some structured content (see above)
was also to be published on a web site, you could output plain HTML from
AuthorIT and use CSS to reskin it, in which case you might want to acquire
some kind of WYSIWYG CSS editor.

And you can probably get to AuthorIT's offices from anywhere in New Zealand
in under a day if you feel you really need to report that bug or request
that enhancement in person!

Regards,
Hedley

--
Hedley Finger
Technical Communications Support Specialist
MYOB Australia <http://www.myob.com/>
P.O. box 371   Blackburn VIC 3130   Australia
12 Wesley Court   Tally Ho Business Park   East Burwood VIC 3151
Australia
<mailto:hedleyDOTfingerATmyobDOTcom>
Tel. +61 3 9222 9992 x 7421,   Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558

(c) MYOB Technology Pty Ltd 2005

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